Student protests in France draw 71,500 nationwide as Lecornu faces pressure

Thursday marches and clashes at Bastille

Tens of thousands of students marched across France on Thursday 8 October, in the third week of a mobilisation that began in late September. The Interior Ministry counted 71,500 demonstrators nationwide, 24,500 of them in Paris. Clashes broke out at the end of the rally at Place de la Bastille, where protesters threw objects at police, who responded with tear gas, water cannon and batons. The Education Ministry said 375 schools were fully or partly closed on Thursday. At the Hélène Boucher lycée in northeast Paris, students blocked the entrance with waste bins until police intervened with tear gas.

Sabrine Karbas, spokesperson for the Student Union, spoke after her organisation was received by the education and higher education ministers alongside two other large student groups. She said:

As long as we do not have 10 billion (euros) on the table, we will continue the mobilisations.

Arrests, injuries and police conduct

The Interior Ministry says police have made more than 6,600 arrests since late September, and most of those detained are under 18. Deutsche Welle put the figure at more than 6,500, mostly minors, and reported that 18 investigations had been opened into complaints of police misconduct. Since mid-September, 215 students and 85 teaching staff have been injured, while the Interior Ministry reports 700 injured police officers. Deutsche Welle describes three serious cases. A 14-year-old in a Paris suburb had his jaw crushed by a tear gas canister fired at close range, a 15-year-old in Lens lost a hand to a stun grenade, and a 16-year-old in Tours suffered partial vision loss, with prosecutors examining whether a police projectile caused it. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez suspended the use of stun grenades against students after the Lens injury.

Paris police said a person was seriously injured on Tuesday 6 October after climbing the Marianne statue at Place de la République, around 15:00 before a march set off. Amnesty International has called on French authorities to end disproportionate police force, and unions and human rights groups accuse officers of unjustified violence against young protesters.

Government response and demands

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu addressed the nation in a televised speech on Wednesday evening, expressing regret for the violence, attacks on students and staff, and schools set on fire or vandalised. He committed to presenting "specific, immediate and fully funded solutions" by the end of October but gave no details of measures. Deutsche Welle quotes him saying:

The anger of young people did not come from nowhere.

The student demands centre on teacher shortages, overloaded timetables and dilapidated school buildings. The government's online consultation platform had received more than 43,000 responses in its first two days. Teachers' unions have called a general strike, and the intersyndical union of students and professionals has set 13 October as the next day of strike and mobilisation.

Wider political pressure

The protests come six months before the presidential election and have reached about forty cities. Teachers are protesting frozen salaries, and fishermen have blocked ports over diesel prices. Fuel prices also triggered the yellow vest protests of 2018 to 2020. Outgoing President Emmanuel Macron promoted a G7 agreement to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from strategic reserves to ease fuel prices. France's public debt is put at about 4 trillion dollars, with annual debt service projected to reach 100 billion dollars in 2027.

Charlotte Bombeau, an English teacher who stood with students near the Hélène Boucher lycée, called the police reaction excessively harsh.

There are many adults who make sure everything is fine for the children.

The government has not yet presented a specific plan for the students' demands.